Revitalizing City Centres, by Vladimíra Šilhánková
The problems of revitalizing the city centres is a hot question for all of our larger cities. It is a complex process, having much in common with various jobs and fields. The article, in fact an abstract of a recent final thesis at the Brno Technical University’s Faculty of Architecture, deals with the analysis of revitalization problems and tries to define the preconditions of revitalization, mainly the planning procedure and the management of revitalization in the framework of the present situation in the Czech Republic.
Building Permission as a Tool of Physical Planning, by Daniel Svozil
One of the basic aims and tasks of physical planning (as declared by §§1-2 of the 50/1976 Physical Planning Act, and now being part of the 197/1998 Building Act) is to fully and thoroughly manage the functional use of space, stating the key points of its organization, coordinating its building industries within their technologies and timing, and making way for an enduring co-existence of natural and cultural values in the area. The article brings a view of this topic as seen from the viewpoint of the everyday life of a front-line authority, the Building Office.
The Shopping Gallery − a Challenge for the City Centre, by Vladimíra Šilhánková
The transformation of economics brings many problems to our cities. One of them is the boom of huge shopping areas outside large and, today, even middle-sized cities. The immediate consequence thereof is a big change in the population’s shopping behaviour. The centres of large and middle-sized cities are now experiencing an increasing lack of customers, and the economic problems of small trading companies, having their places of business in the centres, are rising dramatically. But how can we stop this tendency? How can we make small shops prosperous? What must be done to prevent the city centres from becoming an area solely inhabited by low-income classes?
The Street in the Urban Planning Structure
The above is the title of the 103/991596 research job of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic. Receiving the articles for this task from their writers, specialists in their fields, we will be publishing them in this magazine. We also suppose that they arouse discussions of professionals on the importance of the street, the possibilities of its recovery, the ways of increasing its value as part of the urban planning structure, and the means of improving the quality of the overall image of our cities. Certainly, we are aware that many facts and data presented by the articles are well known to specialists. Nevertheless, we consider it worthwhile to sum them up in an easy-to-find way; not only to refresh the reader’s memory but also to make them accessible to professionals in various other fields who are our readers. Your reaction to this kind of contributions is highly welcome.